The Abortion-Breast Cancer link

Is abortion related to Breast Cancer?

With an estimated 3 in 10 women having an elective abortion by the age of 45, this is a question many women understandably are afraid to ask. However, it's one that they deserve to know the answer to. After all, 1 in every 8 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and rates continue to soar in countries worldwide. More women than ever need to know: what can I do to prevent breast cancer?

For a woman, few events are more life-changing, physically, emotionally and spiritually, than pregnancy and childbirth. So many researchers have looked for answers about breast cancer by examining the delicate changes in a woman's body through pregnancy.

Although a wealth of studies have explored cancer risk factors having to do with pregnancy, including pregnancy termination, media handling of the results has been shoddy or confused at best. But today, the scientific evidence is clearer than ever, and can no longer be ignored: abortion is a real, powerful trigger for breast cancer.

It's called the abortion-breast cancer link, or ABC link.

How does the abortion-breast cancer link work?

During pregnancy, many dramatic changes occur in a woman’s body, including in her breasts. An abortion doesn’t just interrupt the pregnancy, it interrupts those changes. One result of that interruption is that it leaves her with half-transformed breast tissue that is unstable and vulnerable to cancer.

Estrogen, a female hormone, is widely recognized as a carcinogen. This is because one of the things estrogen does is stimulate cell division. But when cell division goes awry, the result is cancer.

In a healthy pregnancy, estrogen and other hormones prepare a woman's body for breastfeeding by developing clusters of breast tissue known as "lobules." These hormones increase the number of lobules in the breast and then mature them from a basic, less stable state (known as “type 1” or “type 2") to a mature one (type 3 or 4).

Mature breast tissue (type 3 and type 4) is significantly less vulnerable to the harmful and potentially cancer-causing effects of estrogen

But when the changes taking place in a woman’s breasts during pregnancy are interrupted for any reason - such as a late miscarriage, a very premature delivery, or an induced abortion - the breasts will only partially develop, leaving much more unstable breast tissue (type 1 or 2) than before.

The problem is this vulnerable breast tissue will subsequently be exposed to estrogen, either naturally during a woman's monthly cycle, or artificially if the woman is taking a hormonal contraceptive such as the Pill.

The long and short of it is, by leaving a woman with unstable type 1 or 2 breast tissue, an induced abortion leaves a woman at considerably heightened risk of breast cancer.

Today, there are more than seventy-eight studies showing a link between abortion and breast cancer and yet most women remain unaware that there is any connection.

Pamela Acker

Program Manager  | BreCeCan 2018